There’s been a lot of talk about microwave ovens causing interference with wireless LANs. Take a look at what was found when testing Wi-Fi in their presence.

Radio frequency (RF) interference causes wireless clients and access points to hold off transmitting, which causes delay and lower throughput. This resulting decrease in performance can make browsing websites and downloading files sluggish. In cases where interfering signals are strong enough, the wireless clients may not be able to access the LAN at all for an indefinite period of time. This is rare, but possible.

As a result, you need to be aware of potential sources of RF interference, such as cordless phones, other WLANs — and microwave ovens. In this tutorial, well focus on interference that microwave ovens create. Most microwaves emit signals that fall within the same 2.4GHz frequency band that 802.11b WLANs utilize. It’s something to think about when deploying.